Clearer skin and higher energy levels are just some of the advantages reported by those who’ve adopted a diet free from meat, fish and dairy products.

But like any lifestyle choice, veganism affects people in different ways. And for actor Anne Hathaway, giving up on the habit led to a surprising benefit.

Hathaway began following a vegan diet in 2012, while filming her iconic role as Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises.

She stuck with it for two years, but has now revealed the moment she made a snap decision to start eating fish and meat again.

The Oscar-winning star was having dinner with her Interstellar co-star Matt Damon in Iceland at the time, in 2014. She and Damon were at a Michelin-starred restaurant, along with Hathaway’s husband Adam Shulman.

Damon had just told the waiter he’d have whatever the chef was serving.

“So then I was the only chick and I’m the vegan and everyone’s just going with the flow,” Hathaway says, in a new interview with Tatler. “So I asked [she puts on a small embarrassed voice]: ‘Is your fish local?’ And they said: ‘Do you see that fjord?’ So I had a piece of salmon.”

Anne Hathaway: “I just didn’t feel good or healthy”

Hathaway says the move to scrap her plant-based diet had an immediate and positive effect: “my brain felt like a computer rebooting,” she recalls.

The actor previously told Harper’s Bazaar that veganism did not gel well with her, saying: “I just didn’t feel good or healthy … not strong”.

Hathaway’s part as an astronaut in sci-fi drama Interstellar required her to be in peak physical condition. A gruelling filming regime saw her suspended from harnesses, floating in mid-air and braving freezing water for hours at a time; all dressed in a 40-pound space suit.

So it’s little wonder she craved an energy boost, in whatever form that took.

In this latest interview, Hathaway also discusses her decision to give up alcohol last year, for the sake of her three-year-old son.

“My issue is I just love it. So. Much,” she says. “But the way I do it makes me unavailable for my son. My last hangover lasted for five days […] I will never be that person who can nurse a glass of wine throughout an entire evening.”

Images: Getty

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Anna Brech

Anna Brech is a freelance journalist and former editor for stylist.co.uk. Her six-year stint on the site saw her develop a vociferous appetite for live Analytics, feminist opinion and good-quality gin in roughly equal measure. She enjoys writing across all areas of women’s lifestyle content but has a soft spot for books and escapist travel content.